Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Born on 10th January, 1961 in Detroit, Michigan and raised there, Steve Hamilton, one of the most acclaimed author of a number of mystery books and a holder of the prestigious Hopwood Award is known to have graduated from the University of Michigan. Well, Currently, staying in Upstate New York together with his wife Julia and their 2 children, Antonia and Nicholas G, Steve Hamilton also works full time with the IBM company while working partly on his writing career mainly after his family has gone to sleep. But that said, Steve Hamilton, an acclaimed writer and also currently in film development, is actually one of the only two writers in history together with Ross Thomas to have won the Edgar award for the Best First Novel and to follow that with an Edgar for the Best novel. In addition to that, Steve’s work has not only seen him win and get nominated for every other major crime fiction awards both in the UK as well as in America but the popularity of work has also seen a number of his books get translated to almost 20 other languages across the world.

Steve’s novels have therefore won numerous awards and received lots of media acclaim, starting with the very first of his writings in the Alex Mac knight series, A cold Day in Paradise, which apparently bagged the Private Eye writers of America Award and St Martin’s press Award for the best First Mystery by an Unpublished writer. However, immediately the work got published, it went on to bag both the MWA Edgar and the PWA Shamus Awards, for the Best First Novel as well as getting shortlisted for the Anthony and the Barry Awards.In fact, the Alex MCKnight series has 2 New York times notable books and even though his accolades did not stop there, Steve Hamilton is too modest to crow and brag about them.

Steve has therefore continued with this passion in writing, producing some very exemplary and notable works and which has recently seen him put two tittles on the New York times best seller list, just like in the year 2006 when he won the Michigan author award for his outstanding body of work. Not to mention the fact that it is his lock artist work that made history in publishing after winning the an Edgar award for the Best Novel In America and the CWA Steel Dagger award for the Best thriller in the United Kingdom as well as the Alex award which is usually presented by the American Library Association to those books which have successfully crossed over from the adult market to the young readers.

That said therefore, some of Alex’s notable books include those in the Alex Macknight series and various other novels, like the 2007, Night work. The Alex Macknight series comprising of A cold day in paradise book and produced in the year 1998 is surely an interesting read, an ingenious, brilliant, a chilling and a tightly written thriller. In A cold day in Paradise, a bullet has been lodged near the heart of Alex MacKnight, a former Detroit cop, for almost 14 years now and the cop who happened to have been his partner then, is 14 years dead. While Rose, the borderline psycho who apparently shot both of them, has been locked up in the state penitentiary since he was caught a year after the incidence. Surprisingly, in a small town of paradise in Michigan, where Alex traded his badge for a cozy cabin in the woods, a man named Rose and a murderer with unmistakable trademarks appears to be back and is thus stalking Alex McKnight. With the strong belief that Rose is still locked away, Alex only wonders who else could be imitating the characters and details of the old murders. Incidentally, on return to his cabin in the woods one night, Alex bumps on a blood red rose and a calling card right at his doorstep.

Meanwhile, Alex had earlier on been called out by a guy called Edwin Fulton, a compulsive gambler and a wealthy acquittance, who unilaterally believes that Alex is his best friend. But to a sudden twist, Fulton goes to some local motel to pay off a bookmaker, where he finds the man murdered with his throat slit open and immediately out of panic calls out Alex to extricate him. The bookmaker is just but the first of what becomes a series of killings and so Fulton’s semi hysterical and domineering mother engages Alex, apparently private detective on this matter, to ensure that her son is safe. MacKnight agrees to the task although reluctantly, knowing that he will have to suffer the recriminations of Fulton’s beautiful and dissatisfied wife, with whom he Alex had a brief liaison. But all this time their is a constant reminder and awareness that although as difficult as the task may appear, Rose antics are looming. But now the Rose flower at Alex door and Rose’s scaring phone calls and threatening letters keeps reminding Alex of the words and the actions that only both of them can decipher. It is now a double tragedy and a mystery that haunts Alex as of how Rose is back and his possible intentions against Alex and so he has to act swiftly and with care.

Another of Steve Hamilton’s book is the Hunting wind. This book is set in the remote and wintry reaches of Michigan’s upper peninsular, where it is almost hard for one to recall what spring time is like. In this book, Steve Hamilton returns readers to the bitter cold paradise in Michigan, the solitary world of Alex MacKnight after a bullet ended his career. Here he had moved to a cabin that his father had build on the upper peninsula and where he spends his days taking care of cabins while at night he relaxes with rounds of Canadian beer at Glassgow Inn.

According to Alex it appears like April is normally too cold to be welcoming. Although, unaware that Randy Wilkins, the crazy south paw pitcher and a friend of him in their minor league days is traveling over to come and see him. Actually they have never met in almost 30 years. However, randy is convinced , that Macknight is the best man to aid him on his bid to locate Maria, his only true love. However, the problem is that Randy had walked away from Maria in the year 1971 and had never since then.

Macknight can not believe his ears to such a ridiculous story. But since Macknight is sometimes known for being a soft spot, he accepts to help his friend Randy in this quest. This search therefore, takes them all the way from Detroit through some gut wrenching twists and strange revelations that makes Alex an unwilling player in this strange and dangerous revelations, but which will make the reader to want to dig deeper into the revelations.

Master of the standalone thriller genre, Shari Lapena, is back. Author of The Couple Next Door and A Stranger in the House, An Unwanted Guest is the latest novel by Shari. It takes place in a cozy mountain lodge in Winter where various people are staying for a romantic getaway. A blizzard cuts off the power and any contact with the outside world so everyone settles in for the long haul. Then a guest dies. And another. Knowing Shari's other books, this should be one we'll be reading late into the night. For more details or to pre-order, visit our Shari Lapena page.

Recommendations

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MISSING A BOOK?

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Author / Series

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Featured Series

Our book series of the month is the Will Robie Series by David Baldacci. If you like Mitch Rapp, Jack Reacher, Jason Bourne etc then you'll love the Will Robie series. These are page turners to the max too and Baldacci knows how to keep you going all night long!

Featured Author

Bill Wenham is the author of various book series including The Inspector Charrington Mysteries and the Inspector Bruce Mysteries. He just started writing in his 80s to follow a life long dream. It’s an amazing story and the books he has written are pretty great too – his passion really shines through. Read more about Bills books.

Did You Know…

Due to the mass controversy involving the ending to The Divergent Trilogy, author Veronica Roth had to post a large blog post, both explaining and defending the ending of the series.